PLATFORM : Loyal to Conscience

The same day I heard about (then) President Nixon having considered the use of Teamster thugs to beat up demonstrators during the Vietnam War, I read about Mary Lopez being brought in chains before a judge and sentenced to 60 additional days in jail for not repenting having poured blood and oil on the Federal Building steps in protest of the Gulf War.

I, too, was arrested, along with others, on Jan. 17 for protesting the Gulf War. I spent just one day as a political prisoner and am now completing my sentence doing community service. One day is enough to know how dehumanizing it is to be ordered around by uniformed authorities who regard you as a menace to society.

It isn’t greed or malevolence that brings anti-war people to civil disobedience but loyalty to conscience.

I don’t think most people would consider a beating by thugs appropriate treatment of demonstrators, or months behind bars necessary to keep war protesters from becoming a danger to the public.